What the hell happened to the summer? It's blowing hard here this morning, its raining and its cold. Not a day to be doing much outdoors. I will just have to summon up the enthusiasm for some desk work that I keep putting off.
Rather than me rabbit on this morning I thought that you might find interest in an email I got yesterday from Gavin P.
Ian
At last I had a couple of hours spare on Saturday morning so on my way home from Leyburn I came down over ribbleshead and whilst eager to fish the river I did need to be back home by 2pm so took the opportunity to fish the tarn.
The main reason for this email is that I had left my key for the lodge at home and couldn't file a catch report but the fishing was very good with large fish in evidence all around the tarn with plenty of terrestrial insects being blown onto the water with the breeze.
I was into my first fish on the first cast after creeping around to the far wall side and beating the swan of that appeared to take a dislike to me even though I was at the far side of the lake. I have attached a picture of this fish around 22/24″ long but a little lean.
Second fish was taken from around the other side near the trees and it took me by surprise as it leapt clear of the water by what appeared to be 3ft and the continued to strip the full line and a great length of backing as it headed for the far side, which appeared to be the only thing that stopped it. After what felt like 10 minuets I had managed to recover the start of my fly line as this fish must have scoured the bottom of the lake until it surfaced about 20ft out from the bank covered in weed. At this point and a very aching arm I realised that I had hooked a very large brownie with what only could be described as having a tail like a spade. I eventually got the fish nearer to the bank but as I reached for my camera to take its picture the hook hold gave and the fish circled and headed for the deep. This was an incredibly powerful fish and the best brownie that I have seen for a long time.
My only regret is that I could not get a picture of this specimen for you and can only guess at what its length and girth was but its still there and no doubt will appear again at some point.
To end I finished with a couple more rainbow similar to the picture all within around 6 cast only as I was mindful of the limit and only fished for what appeared to be bigger fish. These fish all went for a Goddard's style Deer hare sedge all within seconds of the fly hitting the water after a rise. I was surprised by the pleasure I did get from fishing the tarn as I don't really have a great deal of interest in still water fishing but I am looking forward to further visits and avoiding that swan which I think I should make the efforts and perhaps feed this bird to get in its good books.
I did stop at Helwith Bridge on my way home and a note of interest there where 2 very large fish moving up the river I thought they might be early salmon but could have been sea trout both looked around 4lb in weight.
Regards,
Gavin P
Of course, I will file Gavin's return in the register later today as I have done for many members, but the real interest here lies in the account of the giant brownie that has been seen before in the Tarn and the possible presence of sea trout at Helwith Bridge. As I said yesterday, it would be worthwhile trying to build up a record of sea trout sightings so that we can monitor their presence and whether the population is growing, declining or is stable.
Ian